Music, Love and Music

Music, Love, and Music

For us, Music and Movies go hand in hand.
There is so much emotion that is shared through music, moments that with no words tell us so much.

João says:

I will never forget the space scene in “Wall-E” (see our review of”Wall-E” here), how cool “Baby Driver” was because of how they used sound and music (see our review of”Baby Driver” Baby Driver here) or how “Guardians of the Galaxy” made us feel by using so many vintage songs that many of us didn’t even know but didn’t matter because music is timeless.

But having music as a character in your movie is something else, more than just using music to set the tone these movies and director uses it to set the action and lead the story.

John Carney was born in Irland and you can very much see his roots in all of this movies, and its no surprise he was the former bassist and vocalist of the Irish band “The Frames”, so music was very much part of his life.

But how does that translate into an all-new medium, well it works perfectly because he was not shy to bring music to the front and center of all his films, and then just add strong characters and their relationships around it.

It’s very obvious that love is also a theme that is in all his movies, but the love between the characters never gets in the way of the love for music.

“Once”

“Once” was his first film, in 2007 with 100.000 euros and two digital camcorders over a period of three weeks he did an amazing movie that is so real and raw that most of the time we fell its a documentary.
It won an Oscar for a best original song with “Falling Slowly”, this song is performed by the actors of the movie because they were not actors but musicians, something that you will never tell because they are both awesome.

But what is the big deal about this movie?

Well, it is a big deal because from the start you know there is something unique about it, it feels different and rough, the image is grainy and that just makes the music stand out even more.

It’s a love story but not the Hollywood love story we are used to.

They love each other deeply but they never kiss and don’t even end up together but you see the influence they both have on each other life and future.

This is a movie you need to see, it will be the first step into one of the best body of work of any director that loves music and well loves love.

“Begin Again”

After “once” John Carney had the chance to make a bigger movie, “Begin Again”, a movie full of stars like Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, and Adam Levine, it was also an opportunity to get out of Irland and set his story in America.

All this felt like the recipe for this film to lose all of the heart he had in the first movie, well it could have been but he stuck to his vision and to his morals, with that we had a great movie that for once made me forget how much I hate Keira Knightley.

How it shows this characters that are down on their luck but always have music to make them stand another bad day is inspiring, how this people get together because of music and how they survive and turn things around is just brilliant and uplifting.

The scene that Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo go around town just with their iPod is simple, pure and one of the best moments in any movie, you see how they start falling in love but that is not important, the important is the love for music.

Ohhhh my god the music, the music is great its uplifting and once again its all performed by the actors, “Lost Stars” performed by Adam Levine was nominated for an Oscar but did not won.

Look this could very easly have become a cheesy film, but because its about the music you forget how it could become just like every love story out there.

It feels honest, all the problems of the characters we can relate to, it a movie about dreamers that will do everything for their art and its a masterclass on how to use music not to make a musical but to make a movie about the strenght of music in our lifes.

After 2 movies with music as the main focus, I felt he couldnt do much more and specially not much better than his first 2 movies that are master pieces, I love being proved wrong.

“Sing Street”

“Sing Street” one of the most underrated movies ever made, nominated for a golden globe for best musical or comedy movie it deserved much, much more.

Its a story again about music, but this time it has so much more to say, its about love, about not being afraid to go for what you want its the story of the underdog but instead of fighting like in “Rocky” this kids use music.

Music is what he chooses to get the girl he loves but along the way, he discovers the love for music itself.

The actors and suporting cast are all amazing, they make us want to be with them at every step of the way, you want to be in their band, again this movie feels so real that many times you forget its acted out.

Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Kelly Thornton are amazing and how these young actors make you believe in how they fall in love even when in the beginning she is way out of her league is impressive.

So this is one of the best “trilogies” you will ever see, and I hope you do see it, and more importantly, I hope you see it with the sound very, very loud.